Film / Pride (2014)

Edit Locked

It's the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is on strike. At the Gay Pride March in London, a group of gay and lesbian activists decides to raise money to support the families of the striking miners. But there is a problem: the Union seems embarrassed to receive their support.

But the activists are not deterred. They decide to ignore the Union and go directly to the miners. They identify a mining village in deepest Wales and set off in a mini bus to make their donation in person. Many a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Crowning Moment of Funny ensue.

This film provides examples of:

Actually Pretty Funny: One of Maureen's homophobic sons laughs when Hefina snarks at another driver while driving the bus that LGSM donated to the village.

The Beard: At one point Steph offers to be this for Joe, in order to spend Christmas with him, as well as explain where he's going all the time.

Bittersweet Ending: The miners would eventually be defeated by Thatcher's Conservative government, but the relationship between LGSM and the Dulais miners in the strike result in solidarity between the miners and the gay community, who were just as pushed around by that government, leading to the Labour Party enshrining gay and lesbian rights in its manifesto, thanks to the unanimous support of the NUM.

Blatant Lies: Maureen claims that she has no personal problem with LGSM's sexuality. Her delivery (and her later comments) prove this false.

But Not Too Gay: One of the LGSM group suggests they try to tone it down so as not to shock the mining town's residents too much at first. Jonathan acidly responds that it's been a while since he spoke Fifties.

Camp Gay: Most of LGSM is unabashedly out and proud, but Jonathan plays this to the max.

The Cavalry: At the huge pride demo at the end of the film it looks like the LGSM have to either march without their banners or at the very back. But then their miner friends show up in the bus they raised funds for, which raises their spirits, if nothing else. BUT THEN whole busloads of miners from mining towns all over show up and they all get to march proudly at the front of the pride parade.

Chummy Commies: In Mark's first scene a Communist flag can be seen in his flat, and later on another character makes a disparaging remark is made at him regarding his supposed Communism. This is however also the basis for his desire for solidarity. The real Mark Ashton was in fact a member of the Communist Party, although this was apparently downplayed in order to avoid alienating US audiences.

It goes unmentioned but almost all of the LGSM characters were some kind of Marxist, whether they be Trotskyists, or members of the CPGB, or just people on the extreme left of the Labour Party.

Drag Queen: Only briefly shown in the film in two gay club scenes, but Jonathan is stated to do this often.

Dramatization: In a really interesting case, much of the conflict between the Miners and LGSM is fabricated for the movie. There wouldn't be nearly as much plot to the movie if things went as well as it did in real life though.

Easily Forgiven: Mark severs ties with the rest of the group after his Heroic B.S.O.D.. He reconciles with them near the end, but neither explains his reasons nor explicitly says that he's sorry. Then again, they are a Family of Choice.

Fire-Forged Friends: Mark's initial inspiration for LGSM comes from seeing the miners facing the same sort of police harassment the gay community usually experiences.

Fish out of Water: A group of openly gay young men and women in an obnoxiously colored minibus arrive in a staid Welsh mining town.

Joe, in the Pride March in the beginning.

Dai, in the gay bar.

Averted with the women who travel from Dulais to help with Pits and Perverts. They dance up a storm in a number of gay bars and mix freely with the regulars.

Foreshadowing: When Dai says that LGSM are the first gay and lesbians that he has ever met, Mark points out that they are only the first that he knows of. Later it's revealed that his old friend Cliff is gay.

It's established that LGSM members are not to go out collecting alone. Gethin later does, pissed off about the union's vote to cut ties, and gets severely gay bashed as a result.

Friend to All Children: Jeff becomes very popular with the village children, letting them braid and play with his hair and giving them Christmas presents. Sian's daughter even seems to develop a bit of a crush on him, and asks Joe to give Jeff a drawing she's done of him (with 'I LOVE JEFF' written at the top).

Mama Bear: Both Hefina and Sian welcome LGSM from the beginning and hotly defend them to the village, and Sian scolds Joe's mother for her homophobia.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Cliff is almost able to convince Maureen to drop her homophobia and come over to meet the LGSM members. Then another member of the town walks by and yells at Maureen to "get the stick out of your ass" causing her to slam the door on Cliff and call a right-wing newspaper with the story about LGSM supporting the miners

No Bisexuals: The equality movement had yet to include bi, transgender, or intersex, under its umbrella, hence only "Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners". It is set in 1984, when trans and bi people were generally ignored even by the gay community, to say nothing of intersex people.

Police Are Useless: Worse than useless, the police have become totally hostile to the Miners. One of the key moments for LGSM in breaking the ice the Miners was their experience with Police persecution providing the Miners valuable information on due process law, which gets several younger Miners out of jail.

Reality Ensues: Joe spends an increasing amount of time working with LGSM, to the point of skipping classes. He is flunked out for it.

Reasonable Authority Figure: Dai is surprised when he discovers that LGSM are a group of gays and lesbians, but he happily accepts their help. The rest of the Dulais Valley Strike Committee backs him on this... well, except one.

Those Two Guys: Mark Ashdon and Mike Jackson are the two driving forces of LGSM. Every major decision the group make starts with Mark and Mike is the person who is in charge of actually running the group day to day.

Title Drop: An overwrought Mark telling one of the other LGSM members to "have some fucking pride" towards the end of the film.

Token Lesbian: Steph describes herself as this early on when she is the only lesbian in the group. However, they get two more lesbians after a Rousing Speech in a gay bar.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy